User Groups

The UKOUG’s Scottish conference is on the 21st June in the centre of Edinburgh, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, not far from Edinburgh Castle in the centre of the city.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last month or two trying to plan how to navigate a set of visits to the Eastern side of Europe. This might sound a little “My Glamorous Lifestyle” but, as my friend Tim Hall (he who is “Oracle-Base”) has documented in his posts under “my glamorous lifestyle”, doing the Oracle talk circuit often entails lots of hours in airports & stations, travelling with cheap, basic airlines, and sometimes a lot of stress. It is not the “Airport lounge and first class service” some people think it is. Anyway…

At the start of this week, voting for the 2 new UKOUG board members was closed and the votes were counted. Tuesday Morning, I received a call from Carl Dudley, the chair of their appointments committee, and was informed there had been more “Yes” votes than “No” votes for me – So I am now President Elect of the UK Oracle User Group!

It was a relief to know I’d received the approval of the majority of people who had voted for the new president – I was pretty certain that I’d win, given how many words of support I had received, but there is always that doubt… I was curious as to how close the vote was, but Carl was very professional and would give me no clues.

I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me, and also all the people with the Oracle community who showed support on social media for me. I should also mention that my wife, Sue, did not just say “oh go on, if you must” but encouraged me to put my hat in the ring.

I’ve decided to put myself forward to be President Elect of the UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG). The position of President Elect is, in effect, President-in-waiting. You shadow the current president before taking over the role when their term comes to an end. In this case, that will be in a year.

Earlier this week Daniel Westermann asked a question on twitter: “What is community?”

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